To do

To do list:

•Get better line dividers and improve formatting.
•Add pictures/videos showing stuff. e.g. Ward locations, places to aim arrows...
•Make a FAQ section.
•Complete the matchups section
•Play a game using Support Ashe in a Ranked game. I've been holding this off because some people can have... Overdramatic reactions to unconventional champion picks.

A bit about the author

Hi there, and welcome to my first ever guide! Some of you may know me as "that dumb support who made our team lose the game". For those of you who haven't gotten a chance to see me, I'm monkeyboyinc, a low Gold Support main. While I may not be the best player in the world, I'm still confident enough in my abilities to try new things, such as Support Ashe. So bear with me, and I'll explain to you why Support Ashe is a viable choice. More importantly, I'll explain what the other guides and videos get wrong. So sit back, pour yourself a cuppa and read on!

Introduction

In today's metagame, Ashe is a pretty rare pick. After all, she has no escape outside of Flash and no attack steroid. Heck, two of her skills don't provide any damage whatsoever. As a global skillshot junkie, this saddens me greatly. Like it or not, Ashe is a niche pick. However, there is one part of Ashe's skillset that left me particularly perplexed. Her passive, Focus, is an ability which just doesn't fit the Marksman playstyle.

With this in mind, I decided to try out Ashe as a support champion, as she can make full use of her passive in this role. Predictably, it went terribly. I, however, didn't give up. After my third game, I created a custom item set for support Ashe and everything started to fall into place. Since then, I've had over fifty games with the Frost Archer in the support role, and I'm still not bored of her unique playstyle.

I hope that after seeing this guide, some of you will find as much success with Ashe Support as I have.

Oh and yes, I am a bit wordy in this guide. Sorry.

Why should you pick Ashe?

Most guides, at this point, have a Pros/Cons chapter. They're look somethign like this:

Pros+ Has good early game poke+ Can transition into the role of a second ADC+ Her Q, Frost Shot makes her autoattacks permaslow+ Her Global skillshot ult, Enchanted Crystal Arrow is amazing+ Is quite possibly the only AD Support in the game.

Cons- Rather squishy- Is given a very hard time by Sustain lanes- Is Autoattack based.; Thornmail might give you a hard time.- If you're in Team Builder, you will have trouble finding a team that will accept you.

There. It looked neat and stuff, but let's be honest: It doesn't really give much detail. If that short table was enough for you, feel free to skip ahead. Otherwise, I'm going to go into detail about what Ashe brings to the table that other supports don't.

The Positives

AD Support

Ashe is the only AD support in the game. At first, that may seem like a flaw, since everyone takes at least a few flat Armour Runes. However, once you begin to think about what this actually entails, it quickly becomes a Support Ashe's true defining feature.

Warning: lots of text:

Spoiler: Click to view

Ashe's primary method of attack is simply to auto attack. With my runes and masteries, this ammounts to 62 damage, reduced to around 50 due to the armour from flat Armour seals, of course, this is doubled when Ashe lands a critical strike from her [focus].

Once again, this doesn't seem very impressive, but bear with me here. Ashe has a range of 600, the second highest base range of any ADC ( Caitlyn has the highest, with 650 range.) Let's compare this to some other character's abilities. Annie has a targeted damage spell with a range of 625 (Disintegrate) and a cooldown of 4. Sona has a targeted damage spell with a range of 650, Hymn of Valor. It has a cooldown of 8 and unlike other targeted spells, can actually miss if Sona uses it while not in range.

Ashe's auto attacks, at level 1, have a "cooldown" of 1.5 seconds, without items. They do comparable damage to both these spell and have a comparable range. Most importantly, they don't cost any mana. Ashe is the only support who can deal non-negligible damage at a distance while not consuming mana. Of course, you can also use Volley to do what amounts to a second auto-attack. For this reason, Ashe is basically impossible to out-trade for the first few levels of the game. Even champions who can outtrade her can't do so without consuming a significant fraction of their mana pool.

When you combine all these factors together, what you have is a poke champions who can harass without ever worrying about mana, who can punish the enemy adc for the simple act of farming, who can deal good sustained damage to the enemy if a fight breaks out, and who can hinder the enemies escape with Frost Shot when you gain the upper hand.

TLDR: Ashe is one hell of a early game support.

Global ultimate

This is much less wordier than the last point, mainly because it's more of an instantly recognisable advantage. Enchanted Crystal Arrow is quite possibly the single most satisfying ultimate in the game. It stuns and deals decent damage to the first target it hits, and slows everyone around it for three seconds. Easily just as useful as Leona's ultimate. However, the real reason this ultimate is so great is because of the global range.

By taking Ashe into battle as a support, you've automatically increased your team's presence on the map. If a fight breaks out in your/their jungle, you can help your jungler win the battle with a well placed 3 second stun. If your midlaner has their own ultimate ready, you can give them an opening to initiate by firing your arrow to mid lane. Some of you may be shaking your heads at this point, complaining that the arrow is impossible to land from that range. Really though, that's simply due to your lack of experience. Keep practising, and you may discover just how amazing of an ability this is.

Permaslow and Hawkshot

I think this one is actually kinda self-explanatory, really. You press Q and your opponent is slowed by your auto attacks. It's not as strong as other guides make it out to be, but it's still pretty great.

The Negatives

Squishy

Ashe has a rather low base HP. This isn't much of a problem, since most AP supports have low base HP's too. Sightstone will help rectify this somewhat, except my guide advises you build Sightone quite late. Just be careful when around a Leona and be on the lookout for ganks at all times, okay?

Sustain, and the lack of

Pre-6, Ashe works best as part of an aggressive poke lane. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, Sustain lanes beat poke lanes by virtue of being able to shrug off whatever poke you throw at them. Worse yet, any damage they do to you, you can't heal back without a health potion.
If you find yourself up against a sustain lane, you better be careful about taking damage. If you let up on the harassment after a trade, they'll be able to recover whereas you won't.

AD Support

Yeah, I know I wrote a big wall of text about the benefits of being an AD support, but one must also consider the fact that in today's meta, an All AD team is very possible to have, accidentally or otherwise. If you find your team has an excessive of Attack damage, I highly recommend you choose a different champion instead. Having three or more auto-attack based champs with no AP anywhere is just /begging/ for the entire enemy team to buy Thornmail.

Getting booted from Teambuilder

Yeah, it happens. Lots of people are very hesitant to play with a Ashe Support. Be prepared for marksmen to quit the lobby the moment you join, and be prepared to get kicked by the team captains.

My personal highscore is 12 consecutive kicks!

Runes - Why Siv HD is a bad influence

What not to do

First of all, what you should not have as your rune page is this:

Runes

Greater Glyph of Critical Damage9

Greater Mark of Critical Damage9

Greater Quintessence of Critical Damage3

Greater Seal of Critical Damage9

Yes, I am well aware that Siv HD ran 48 Crit damage. People seem intent on reminding me of that fact in 30% of the games I play.But there are two important reasons why you should not do this.1: You are not Siv HD. Sib HD is an extremely skilled player who was playing in a premade team of 5 against random people in a Normal game. Odds are, you probably aren't.

2: Ashe's passive has changed since Siv HD made his video.
Back then, Focus gained stacks every second while not attacking. Whenever she did attack, however many stacks she had was her Critical Strike chance. Since it was entirely possible to waste the passive by attacking before 100 stacks and not getting a Crit, it encouraged you to wait.

With her remade passive, this is no longer the case. Ashe should be attacking as frequently as possible, hence the AD marks. Most of her attacks will not be Critical Strikes, so sacrificing all early game gold and armour just isn't worth the increase in burst damage from the Crits.

Instead, do this:

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Damage9

Greater Seal of Armor6

Greater Seal of Scaling Armor3

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist9

Greater Quintessence of Gold3

This rune page gives you everything you need for a good laning phase. The Gold/10 runes means that you have another source of income, since you'll be leaving creeps to the ADC. The Armour and Magic Resist is fairly self-explanatory, I feel. And finally, the AD gives that extra edge to your power; your poke hurts more, your potential in a fight is higher, and if you find yourself in lane alone, last hitting creeps is easier.

Masteries - Choose your own adventure!

I anticipate that my masteries will be the second most controversial part of this guide. This is due to the fact that many of my mastery choices have other options which are debatably better than the ones I use. For this reason, you should decide for yourself which ones are really worth using over the others.

The most controversial part of the guide, of course, is the part where I play Ashe Support.

Personally, I like to put four points into Sorcery and one point into Fury . Having the 5% CDR from Sorcery means I can start the game with 10% CDR with help from Intelligence . Shaving 10 seconds off my ult's cooldown makes quite the difference. I put the remaining point into Fury instead of Expose Weakness because I feel as though giving my teammate 1% bonus damage from hitting an enemy with my W is a bit overly specific. You could put the point into Double-Edged Sword though, if you'd prefer it. It's really up to you.

DEFENCE

As you can probably tell, I don't bother with the Defence Masteries at all. That isn't to say that there's not any good options available. I just feel as though points can be spent better in other places.

If you simply must dip into the Defence tree, I'd suggest getting Block and/or Recovery . Enchanted Armor is useless on Ashe. Despite what the comments section on a different Ashe Support guide says, Ashe is not a tank. Tough Skin is equally useless.

The Utility tree is what I find to the the most useful tree, personally. There is just so many different perks you can get from it. As with the other two trees, nothing I say here is absolute. Feel free to improvise!

I take Phasewalker because recalling one second quicker means you can return to lane one second sooner. Also, it can save your life when recalling in the brush. The Fleet of Foot points are there in order to help me stick to enemies that little bit better. I held off putting three points into it so that I had a point left over for Wanderer , which is the same but better, except it doesn't work outside of combat.

I get three points of mana regen to help ensure I never need to worry about it, and so that I can get Strength of Spirit . This mastery is like Recover from the Defensive tree, but better in every way. Greed , Scavenger , Wealth and Bandit are all amazing choices, Bandit especially. You can earn loads of gold from auto attacking enemies, which is exactly what an Ashe support should be doing anyway. Finally, I got Intelligence to bring my CDR up to 10%, because .

I tried running Inspiration for a while, but I'm unsure if it even works. I've never seen my EXP go up ever, even when waiting next to a higher leveled champion. *Shrug*

Summoner spells

Let's be realistic. There's only two spells that can go here.

SPACEExhaust and FlashSPACE

Exhaust is a must have for supports. Not only does it slow enemies, but it also cripples their damage and their attack speed! Even better, as of Patch 4.13, it lowers the target enemy's armour! This is a spell you should take 95% of the time.

Flash, AKA, that yellow thing that shows up no less than ten times on the loading screen. Instant repositioning in great, no matter what champion you are! Since Ashe lacks an escape of her own, you'd have to be an absolute teapot in order to not take this spell.

Other options

If you're against a heavy sustain lane (Read; Soraka), you might consider taking this. Otherwise, I'd give it a miss.

If your ADC is a greedy bastard who took Ignite, you should probably take Heal in order to save his arse.

A rather underrated choice, Smite is seeing more and more use as of late in the LCS due to a recent shift in the meta. Consider bringing Revive along too should you plan to utilise this.

Ashe's skillset and why it is great for a support champion.

Passive

Focus

Description:

If Ashe has not attacked in the last 3 seconds, she gains 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 Focus stacks per second. At 100 stacks, Ashe will critically strike on her next basic attack. Thereafter, Focus stacks will reset to an amount equal to her critical strike chance.

Ashe's passive is an amazing tool for an support. As she's not going to be attack minions most of the time, she will be gaining stacks all throughout laning. Each time your focus hits 100, you should try to tag the squishier of your lane opponents with an arrow. Hit W to fire a Volley at them while you're at it, for extra damage!. At level 1, this combo can easily do 180 damage to your enemy, and it only costs 60 mana!

Tips

Using your volley will not count as an attack, so you can harass opponents with your W without losing out on any stacks.

Just because you have this passive, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be harassing when it's not up. Since Focus got a rework, stacks are no longer consumed after every auto attack.

Q

Frost Shot

Description:

Ashe enchants her basic attacks with ice, slowing her targets for 2 seconds.

This skill is Ashe's defining trait, the one which everyone knows. When Q is toggled on, Ashe's arrows gain a slowing effect, starting at 15% at level 1 and increasing by 5% per level afterwards. Since you won't be farming when playing support, you can basically just leave this skill turned on the entire time. 8 Mana a shot isn't a problem, especially considering Ancient Coin gives mana regeneration.

This skill is great for fights where the enemies start to turn and run. You can just focus your attacks on them to slow them so your teammates can murderfy them.However, this skill is definitely not supposed to be maxed first. I'll go into a bit more detail after I cover Volley but for now, just max it out second.

Tips

When chasing an escaping enemy, move towards your opponent in the time between each auto attack. If you just stand still and shoot arrows, you'll have a harder time sticking to them.

If you find yourself in lane alone, it's probably a good idea to turn this off while last hitting the minions. Mana is very rarely a problem for Support Ashe, but it never hurts to be careful.

W

Volley

Description:

Ashe fires 7 arrows in a cone, dealing physical damage to each target hit. Volley also applies the current rank of Frost Shot to each target hit

Volley is such a great skill. What more can I say? It has a massive range, is very hard to dodge, slows the opponent and deals more damage than an auto attack. Take a point at level 1 and max it first.

Frost Shot or Volley?
Some guides recommend that you max Frost Shot first and then this later. The logic behind this is that Frost shot becomes a 35% slow at level 5, while Volley only gains +40 damage. Using a Level 2 volley will still apply this slow to everyone it hits, so by maxing Frost Shot first, you are increasing the power of this skill too.

At first glance, this seems pretty convincing. After all, +10 damage per level up really doesn't seem like it's worth the price. Upon further examination though, this argument falls apart. At level 1, Volley has an enormous cooldown, 16 seconds. Each additional level you put into it decreases the cooldown by a massive 3 seconds, meaning that this skill will only have a 4 second cooldown at Level 5, a 75% decrease.

Say a 2 vs 2 fight breaks out in bot lane at level 9. At this point, you'll either have Level 5 in Frost Shot and Level 2 in Volley, or you'll have Level 5 in Volley and Level 2 in Frost Shot.

Let's look at the first situation. Since the enemy you should be focusing as also an ADC, a 35 percent slow won't really affect them very much. Slowing the enemy has zero effect on their damage output. Sure, they can't escape or chase you, but you haven't really got anything that gives you the edge you need to win, save for Ashe's ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

If you were to have maxed out Volley first though, you would certainly have the advantage needed to win the fight. Each volley shot would deal 80+100% of your AD, making each Volley almost equivalent to two auto attacks. Not only that, but you would be able to use it once every 4 seconds, instead of once every 13 seconds like in the previous example.

In the time it took to do 50+100%AD damage in the previous example, you will have done 240+300%AD of damage to the enemy. Possibly even to both enemies, since it's an AoE spell. Sure, the enemy has more potential to escape, but they have much less potential to win the fight. Besides, Enchanted Crystal Arrow proves you with good damage, a hefty 3 second slow and a stun that's guaranteed to last at least 1 second.

In short, Death is the best form of CC and you should help apply it with Volley.

Tips

Your volley has massive range, but can be blocked my minions. Look for gaps in the minion line to fire at in order to hit the carry!

Volley is also great for shoving lanes. If the enemy team is missing from bot lane, or if both you and your adc need to recall, shove up the lane so you can return before your tower takes damage.

E

Hawkshot

Description:

Ashe animates a hawk to scout for her, granting sight for 2 seconds as it flies towards a target location. Hawkshot grants a 1000-radius area of sight for 5 seconds when it reaches its destination. In addition, Ashe passively gains 3 extra gold whenever she kills a unit

This is probably the most understated of all of Ashe's skills. The passive part is largely ineffective as a support, as she'll be gaining gold from minions her team-mates kill thanks to Ancient Coin.

However, the active ability is much more useful than most people think. Due to Hawkshot, Ashe almost never needs to facecheck a brush. Not only that, but it can provide vision in key areas during intense situations.

Say your adc is Vayne, and they just activated their ult. Odds are, she's going to Condemn an enemy into the outer wall, if this fight is happening at bot lane. Using Hawkshot, your Vayne doesn't need to worry about accidentally hitting the enemy into an unwarded brush, as this skill will give you vision into the brush.

Overall, this is a surprisingly useful tool. Take a point at level 3/4 and max it last.

Tips

You can use this skill to check on Dragon/Baron from a distance. Remember that Hawkshot gives a 1000 range vision field when it hits its destination, meaning the range it is useful from is higher than the range you can fire it from.

If you think a gank might be incoming, fire this skill towards the area in question if there's no wards present. The enemy will know that you know they are there, and will probably back off. If they don't back off, well hey. At least you've got an opportunity to run, instead of being taken by surprise.

Ultimate

Enchanted Crystal Arrow

Description:

Ashe fires a giant arrow in a straight line. If it hits an enemy champion, it will deal magic damage and stun that champion for up to 3.5 seconds, based on the distance the arrow traveled. Additionally, enemies within a 250-radius of the impact take half the damage and are slowed by 50% for 3 seconds.

I can't stress enough how much I love this skill. How this skill is used is what separates a great Ashe from the crowd. 99.99% of the time, you'll want to take a point whenever it's available.

I don't even know where to begin listing the uses of this skill. There's just so many of them. You can use it to stun the enemy ADC and deal some hefty damage, you can use it to engage on the enemy team in the teamfighting stage, you can use it to protect red buff if an enemy starts trying to take it, you can use it to snipe recalling enemies, you can use it to win mid lane from bottom lane... Hell, some people go full AP and just snipe people all game with 1.0 ability scaling arrows. It's just an amazing skill.

Tips

If an enemy escapes into an unwarded area, use Hawkshot to gain vision so that you have a better chance at landing this skill.

Try and communicate with you teammates when you launch a cross-map arrow. Ping for your teammates to attack so that the enemy is caught up fighting in the area where the arrow's going to hit.

Keep a tally of how many times you hit your intended target each game. Knowing how often you miss gives you a goal to strive for when it comes to improving.

Itemization and gameplay - AKA the chapter half of you are going to skip to

Starting Items

These items provide everything you need in order to keep you going until your first recall. The Ancient Coin provides mana regen, a small amount of HP regen and most importantly, gold! The health potions, meanwhile, means you can heal up after a trade. Since you're relying mainly on auto attacks for damage, the enemy should be at a real mana disadvantage after the trade.

Spellthief's Edge
vs.
Ancient Coin

Since Ashe is based heavily around poking the enemy, some people may be wondering why I did not start off with Spellthief's Edge.
While it is certainly true that quite a bit of gold can be generated from this item, the fact remains that it's intended for AP champions. Nothing of use can be built from Spellthief's Edge, besides from Frost Queen's Claim, which has a small AoE slow. Considering that 75% of Ashe's skills slow the enemy already, I don't really find much use for this. Much better is Talisman of Ascension, which can be used for a Sivir style speed boost.

Some more of you are probably wondering why I'm not starting off with Relic Shield. The answer to that one, once again, is because Ashe is not a tank.

First buys

This is the place where I feel that other builds start to screw up. Of these three items, the Pickaxe is definitely the most important. I highly recommend you buy this before the other two items. The reason why Ashe Support is so effective during early game is due to the high ammount of damage she's able to output. Unfortunately, that damage starts to fall off hard as laning continues, as the base health of the enemy champions starts getting higher and higher. By buying an early pickaxe, Ashe will be able to continue outputting a decent amount of damage until laning ends. If you don't build a damage item like this nice and early, you'll just end up turning into a tickle Ashe, like the other builds have you do.

As for the Boots of Speed and Nomad's Medallion both these items are just plain good buys. I'd prioritise the Medallion over boots most of the time, but you're free to buy things in whatever order you wish. Heck, sometimes I just plain skip the Medallion altogether if a better option opens up (Such as having enough to buy a powerful item earlier than expected.).

Just don't forgot to keep buying wards. Wards save lives, kids!

What happens next?

By now, the laning phase is probably near its end, if not already. Because of this, you simply must buy a Sightstone. As the support, your teammates will be relying on you to provide vision of key areas. Because of this, the Sightstone is an essential buy.

You should also consider swapping out your Warding Totem for a Sweeping Lens. Now that you have a sightstone, the Warding Totem is basically obsolete. With the Sweeping Lens, you can start denying your enemies vision of the map, giving your team an advantage in map control.

Final core items

Infinity Edge

I normally complete this item as soon as I can, after the Sightstone is bought. Building the B. F. Sword before the Cloak of Agility gives you a nice boost in power to your W and to your poke, but saving up 1550 gold as a support can be a challenging task.

The reason for buying the Infinity Edge is to give Ashe enough damage to make an actual difference in a fight. Otherwise, you run the risk of ending up with the infamously useless Tickle Ashe.

Berserker's Greaves

This item can be bought at any time, really. It's more of a filler item, for when you don't have enough gold to buy anything significant, but still want something useful. Feel free to complete this item any time after buying a pickaxe.

Divergent Builds

As you progress into the mid game, the state of the game can be vastly different from one game to the next. At this point, the build starts becoming less static. You should itemise based on whatever situations arise, also taking into account factors such as team compositions and which champions are fed. My advice would be to finish Infinty Edge, then choose from the items listed below depending on what the situation needs.

From this point out, I will be examining item choices, good and bad, and going into the reasons for buying, or not buying, each one.

OFFENSIVE ITEMS

Statikk Shiv

If you want good sustained damage, you can't really go wrong with Statikk Shiv. Sure the stats are a bit less gold efficient than its cousin, the Phantom Dancer, but it makes up for it with it's passive. This passive can hit up to four enemies at once for 100 magic damage each, and the damage is capable of critical striking. Considering that you've got your passive, Focus, Ashe can trigger the critical damage from the passive more easily. Not only that, but the damage bonus from Infinity Edge applies too!

Phantom Dancer

Personally, I wouldn't go with it. It's slightly more gold efficient that Statikk Shiv, but the total price is still higher. As a support, you're not exactly made of gold. I don't find much use for the passive either. Still, if you don't want to go Stattik Shiv for some reason, you could pick it up.

TrinityForce

I guess is could work? I dunno, the Spellsword effect means you could do some good burst damage, and the critcal chance/Attack speed from Zeal is nice. Problem is though, the Phage effect seems wasted on Ashe Support. By the time you have enough gold to buy this, you'll already have several levels in Frost Shot. 10 extra speed per shot fired at an enemy is nothing compared to the 20%+ slow you'll have by then.

Manamune / Muramana

Ashe shouldn't be having mana problems and if you want a good damage item, you can do better than this. The active on Muramana will do about 54 damage at level 18 and it will give 61 AD. This isn't bad, but the problem is that it takes time to get to this point, and you're stuck with a sub-par item until you get there.

Essence Reaver

An interesting choice. The total gold value of the stats alone comes to 3747, making Essence Reaver around 110% gold efficient. The Cooldown reduction is super nice, and the damage is very appealing. Problem is, Ashe has no need for the passive. Once again, she shouldn't ever be running out of mana. I'd give this one a miss, personally. If you are having mana problems though somehow, feel free to try it out and tell me how it goes.

The Bloodthirster

As of Patch 4.10, The Bloodthrister is no longer dependant on Minion kills for it to do damage. This makes it a viable choice on Ashe, increasing both her presence and her survivability in teamfights with its high damage and shield. It's also great for extended sieges on towers! All in all, a very strong lifesteal option.

Blade of the Ruined King

Another strong lifesteal choice, although the damage is only really useful when enemies are stacking health. The slowing active is slightly redundant, but it makes up for it with the 10% health drain. Still, I wouldn't really consider this to be worth the cost unless there are many high-hp enemies around. Even then, I'd want to buy some other attack speed item first.

Last Whisper

Seems like a pretty decent choice if the enemy's stacking armour. However, I feel it doesn't quite give enough to justify having an entire item slot dedicated to it. I'd much rather get The Black Cleaver If you want to transition into a full ADC when endgame comes around though, go ahead and buy it.

The

Black

Cleaver

If the enemy is stacking armour and I want to remain a support, this is the item I would go for. The 5% armour reduction means that damaging enemies lowers their armour, letting your teammates deal more damage to them. Better yet, it triggers from your Volley, meaning you can apply a armour reduction to a whole load of enemies. Since Volley will have less than a 4 second cooldown at level 5, you can put a whole 5 stacks on a group of enemies from Volley alone. Also, CDR is super nice. More Ults = more fun.

Spirit of the Elder Lizard

The sad part is, this isn't even a joke. I have bought this item before on Support Ashe, multiple times. Hey, stop laughing! Let me just explain the justification here.
At the price of 2000 gold, this is a cheap item. While it's not incredibly powerful, it does give some attack damage, and a bit of CDR. However, the true reason you buy this item is for the True damage. Ashe's W, Volley, deals physical damage, meaning that every target hit is burned for 14+2*{level} damage. If for some reason, the enemy team has lots of armour without much HP, this item can be a very useful buy.
Unfortunately, since this is technically a gold income item, you can't own both this and the Talisman of Ascension at the same time. If you sold your Ancient Coin in order to get a super-early BF Sword or something, this can be a worthwhile pickup. Otherwise, it's extremely situational.

Runaan'sHurricane

"If I buy this, I can apply a 35% slow to three enemies at once and it only costs 8 mana!"
-Every Tickle Ashe ever.

Seriously, I just don't get these guys. Ashe barely ever runs out of mana in teamfights anyway, even when she's spamming her Volley. Her Volley, I should mention, is very capable of applying a 35% slow to three enemies at once. I guess maybe if you also had Black Cleaver and BotrK, it miiiiight be worth it? I dunno.

All I know is, there's never been a single time where I thought to myself, "Boy, I sure need even more slowing potential" as Ashe. Ignore it.

Executioner's Calling

I barely even knew this was a thing until now. If there's a fed Fiddlesticks or fed Aatrox, maybe get it. If not, forget about it.

Zephyr

If the game has lasted a long time, it's often advantageous to sell your boots and buy one of these in it's place. For a small Movespeed tradeoff, you get increased AD, Attack speed and CDR, as well as Tenacity, which is a really nice passive ability. I'd recommend having a Talisman of Ascension with you if you do buy this, as the speed boost from that helps offset the small speed loss from selling your boots.

SUPPORTIVE ITEMS

Locket of the Iron Solari

The Locket of the Iron Solari is incredibly useful. Not only does it give a Hp Regen field, with the added bonus of Magic resist, but its active lets you shield everyone around you. If there's dangerous amounts of AP on the enemy team and the jungler has no intention of buying this, you should definitely get it. I know I just listed basically every AD item ever up above, but that doesn't change the fact that you are still a support. And there's no better way of supporting your team than to keep them alive.

Talisman of Ascension

This, in my opinion, is the only Gold Income Support item worth building. Its high mana regen stats is the very reason you shouldn't bother with Manamune and Essence Reaver, and is the reason you never need to worry about running out of mana. I mean, I don't normally run out of mana as Support Ashe anyway, but this just makes it a complete non-issue.

More importantly, the active is amazing. Since Ashe doesn't have a built-in escape, this item can really help her survivability, and the survivability of her team-mates too! Not only that, but it was be used to engage too! Fire off an Enchanted Crystal Arrow onto the enemy of your choice, then pop the speed boost so your fighters can run into the enemy's back-line!

Face of the mountain

Ashe is not a tank. She is also not melee. If you buy this, you deserve any losses you incur.

Frost Queen's Claim

Eeeeeh... It can generate a lot of gold, but the slowing ability is rather redundant. Plus, there's all that AP just going to waste. I wouldn't buy it.

Zeke's herald

Zeke's

Herald

If you've got an AD heavy team, this item is perfect! It increases the damage of everyone around, and also gives them lifesteal. Not only that, but this gives a whopping 20% CDR, cutting 16 seconds off your ult's Cooldown at level 16.

Mikael's

Crucible

The heal and anti-cc is nice, but the Mana regen is a complete waste. You're not justified in paying such a high price for this single active effect. Skip it.

Ruby sightsone

If you have 800 gold free, there's no real harm in getting this. That one extra ward could make a big difference.

TRINKETS

When it comes to Trinkets I feel there's not really any choice that is better than the other. While it is generally agreed that starting with Warding Totem and swapping out for Sweeping Lens upon buying a Sightstone is a good idea, the trinket you end the game with will vary greatly. On one hand, you could upgrade the Warding Totem so that it can place Pink Wards. This is useful if you want to control objectives. On the other hand, you could upgrade the Sweeping Lens to give true sight around you, which is very useful for teamfighting against champions with stealth, and is also better at clearing out wards.

If you actually want to have fun though, go with the Scrying Orb. There is simply nothing more satisfying that tagging an enemy with the orb and hitting him with an Enchanted Crystal Arrow. I've gotten kills on out of position carries in the jungle that way before. It works.

Finally, if the game has been dragging on for ages, you could sell your Sightstone and upgrade your Warding Totem to the Greater Stealth Totem. It's risky, since you'd have less vision, but that extra inventory slot could buy something that gives you the edge needed to win.

Matchups

Below are a list of champions you're likely to come up against in lane. This list is by no means exhaustive yet, but it should give you a general idea as to what's a tough lane and what isn't. Keep in mind that there's three main things you should think about when it comes to an opponent:

"Can they engage?"

Spoiler: Click to view

Ashe's strength lies in her ability to poke at range. If the enemy can somehow close that gap between you and them, you might have a problem. You should try and poke them down without giving them a chance to get in close.

"Are they tanky?"

Spoiler: Click to view

A champion who is tanky is a pain to deal with. Sure, you can poke at them and out-damage them, but they can come out of a trade with a lower total percentage of hp lost. If a champion is tanky, you should focus on poking down the less-tanky opponent, if possible.

"Can they heal?"

Spoiler: Click to view

This is the important one. Enemies which are capable of healing can negate your poke, simply by erasing the damage done. If you find yourself against a enemy with good sustain, you should keep poking anyway, in order to run their mana out.

Alistar

Spoiler: Click to view

Alistar is your worst enemy. Period. He can do a targeted engage on you from 625 units away, compared to Ashe's auto attack range of 600. He can heal back any poke you do to him or his carry with Triumphant Roar and worst of all, he is as tanky as hell. Heck, his ult can even negate yours. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is a hard counter. Damage him as hard as possible levels 1 and 2. If you can make him too low to safely engage, you might just stand a chance. Just for the love of god, don't auto attack him after then or he'll headbutt you into a wall.

Caitlyn

Spoiler: Click to view

Caitlyn has an auto attack range of 650, 50 units higher than what Ashe has. This can make poking her down with auto attacks quite the challenge, especially since her passive ( Headshot) is similar to yours. Her Piltover Peacemaker can be deceptively strong; If it hits you before anything else, it'll do a whole 130% of her AD in damage, plus the base damage. Although you may be tempted to try and interupt Ace in the Hole's channel time with Enchanted Crystal Arrow, you need to be extremely close in order to do so, since the channel time is only 1 second in length. Assuming you ult the exact same time she started to channel, it will not hit her in time unless you are 800 or less units away from her. A much safer strategy would be to run up to her and use Exhaust, so that the projectile only does 60% of its damage. After that, you can use your Enchanted Crystal Arrow to either try for the kill, or to disengage. This is by no means an easy lane, but it's far from impossible.

Leona

Spoiler: Click to view

Leona's main strength lies in her tankiness and her engaging power. You must not let her engage. Keep control of the brushes through wards, be prepared to dodge to the side when poking with auto attacks, and punish her hard if she misses her E. If she does manage to engage into your carry, ignore her and focus on the enemy ADC. Attack them with everything you have, and exhaust them if they start doing damage to your friendly ADC. Be wary of her power to engage with a Flash too. Forgetting that is how mistakes happen.

Lulu

Spoiler: Click to view

Lulu probably won't give you a hard time. Not only is she squishy, but she has no method of hard engaging, nor does she have any form of sustain. Her Whimsy and Help, Pix! have a higher range than your auto attacks, but she'll burn through her mana quickly if she tries to spam her spells for damage. Glitterlance gives a nice slow and will do good damage if she maxes it first, but it's fairly predictable. Overall, a fair easy lane opponent. Just remember that Lulu excels at keeping her team-mates alive. Don't ever assume anything is a guaranteed kill.

Sona

Spoiler: Click to view

Sona can provide you with quite the challenge in lane, but she does have exploitable weaknesses. Her Aria of Perseverance heal is weak, but costs a relatively high amount of mana. Since she's so squishy, she's forced to heal back whatever poke you do, or she risks death. Exploit this to run her mana dry. Keep in mind that her Hymn of Valor outranges your auto attack range, and don't forget to spread out post level 6 so that her ultimate can't hit you both.

Vayne

Spoiler: Click to view

I almost feel sorry for enemy Vayne players. Not only do you outrange her, but she's also really squishy. Even better, your Volley fires in a cone, meaning she has lots of trouble using Tumble to escape. Shutting her down should be easy.

FAQ - The place where the things I missed will go.

TO BE ADDED

Acknowledgements

As this is my first ever guide, I have quite a few people I wish to thank.

First and foremost, thank you to Riot Games and the entire League of Legends community. Without you guys, I wouldn't be playing this game at all.

Thank you Mobafire.com, for being my #1 go-to place for tips and guides when playing League.

Thank you jhoijhoi. Not only has your guide to writing guides been a massive help, but your old Nasus Guide was the first guide I had ever used.

Thank you leagueoflegends.wikia.com, for covering so many details so comprehensively. You were a much-used resource while coming up with this playstyle.

Thank you Siv HD, for making people think I'm a Siv HD fanboy trying to copy his tactics.

Thank you everyone who I have ever played Support Ashe with and lost. Your sacrifice was not in vain.

Finally, thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any suggestions, queries or spot any glaring errors, don't hessitate to share your thoughts!

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!